Uruguay striker Luis Suarez told FIFA's disciplinary panel that he did not deliberately bite Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini in a World Cup game.

In a letter to the panel, Suarez said he lost his balance, fell on his opponent and his teeth accidentally embedded into Chiellini's shoulder, leaving a bite mark.

His case will be presented to FIFA's appeal panel, after his national federation notified FIFA late Friday it would challenge the nine-match, four-month ban handed down by FIFA.

"In no way it happened how you have described, as a bite or intent to bite," Suarez wrote in Spanish in a letter dated June 25, according to The The Associated Press, which has seen papers for the appeal.

"After the impact ... I lost my balance, making my body unstable and falling on top of my opponent," Suarez wrote in his submission to the panel which met Wednesday, one day after Uruguay beat Italy 1-0 in a decisive group-stage match.

"At that moment I hit my face against the player leaving a small bruise on my cheek and a strong pain in my teeth," Suarez said.

FIFA's seven-man panel, which met on Wednesday, dismissed the explanation and called the bite "deliberate, intentional and without provocation."

In addition to the ban, Suarez was fined 100,000 Swiss francs, or roughly $112,000 in American dollars.